As a gift to my cousin for his marriage and new addition to the family, I've decided to make something special. I want to make the baby a mobile with my newly adopted "skill" - needle felted animals. Oh and how nice would it be to make some clouds too! Here are some of my inspirations:

I don't know what got to me this year. But it's like discovering art for the first time in my life, I picked up a paint brush and started experimenting with painting, drawing, collage, and needle felting. I was surprised by how easy it is to paint during my first painting lesson 15 years. With nobody judging or giving me marks, I created a couple of not too bad first pieces on canvases and papers. I also picked up the wool felt that I bought in China a few years ago and started making things with it. It was difficult at first. But soon one after another, little animals were created. Perhaps it's all the blogs I visited this year, perhaps it's a belief that I must got some of mom's genes in me, perhaps it's all the extra time I have for my mind to wander and my hands to linger. I see something in me that I did not see before. I also see something in this world that I never noticed before: patterns, colors, shapes, randomness, light and shadow, texture. I don't know if it's one of the flings that I have once in a while or if it will become something bigger. At this moment I'm just curious about all these and thirst for more.

I found out about a Canadian artist called Michelle Forsyth today. She uses paint, water color, fabrics, cut-paper and other media to create delicate painting and installations. "Her work examines traumatic cultural events and incidents of human suffering depicted in the media." You can find out more about her here: http://www.michelleforsyth.com/index.html.